Laced

Okay, I see from the comments that at least two people are following along. The first one came through around 7:30 this morning, so thanks for early-rising blog readers.

PB, to answer your questions: no, I was not wearing the shoes like this (a little credit?), and they were not aligned exactly—it was a very impromptu decision to take the photo. The lacing of the shoe on the right is what prompted it.

When I buy shoes, if they come with the laces already in them, they are almost invariably laced like the sneaker on the right, with the lace going across the bottom over the lace holes. I've always thought this looks wrong, so I've always switched the lacing so the lace goes under the bottom holes. This way, you get nice, even rows of lacing like the shoe on the left. (I was in the midst of changing the laces on these sneakers when I started thinking about it, and the "in-between" picture seemed like a good way into discussing it.)

As far as comfort and wear, I don't believe there is any difference between one way of lacing and the other. It just makes me wonder why, when "my" way seems to me to be obviously more visually appealing, I don't find more shoes laced this way out of the box. I've also never seen this topic come up anywhere else, leading me to think that my personal obsessions are not nearly as significant as I believe them to be...